It gives me great pleasure to announce the following new GMC initiative.

We have a few members that have been around GMC for a while that have been making above average contributions. These people have encouraged, led by example and used their knowledge to help others progress in many different ways.

Kris has decided that we need to recognise these people and mark them out as Senior Members for two reasons - Firstly we want to show people that their contributions are valued. Secondly, we want to show others the kind of behavior that we want to foster on GMC. This site is an incredible place to hang out, and the members being recognised have played a huge part in that. We want to encourage that same attitude in others.

Senior members will get the following benefits:

Free membership

Custom title

Badge

Free GMC Senior T-shirt

Access to the secret Seniors board

Senior Members are being picked out by Kris - when we discussed this we came up with a list of the type of qualities required so that others will know what they need to do to get Senior Member status. Since the GMC site is all about you the users, if anyone feels strongly that a particular member deserves this honour feel free to PM me, and I'll try and convince Kris that they are worthy, if I agree

In order to be considered as a senior member, you will need at least the following:1. Good Attitude

GMC is a great place to hang out, and we want to keep it that way. People who start arguments or are deliberatly objectionable need not apply. However, please note that reasoned disagreement is very much encouraged, and is a very positive thing when coupled with politeness. We will not consider anyone that has been in trouble with the moderation staff.

2. Has something important to add, or has shown leadership

Everyone has their own sweet spot or area of expertise. Using this knowledge to help others, or provide information to the community at large is a defining attribute of a senior member.

3. Be around for more than 3 months.

Some people seem to pop up, post for a while then disappear - I am guessing when their first subscription runs out. We want people that have staying power as Senior Members.4. Posted a reasonable number of times.

Senior Members are people on the board that are familiar to all of us, and have posted sufficiently that we have a feel for their character, personality and interests. Five posts definately won't do it - maybe 50 will, depending on the content of those posts, maybe it will take more.

5. Good Communication skills.

We like to encourage clear, well written language, and good expression of ideas. This is not about how good your English is - a large number of members use English as a second language, and we absolutely will not take that into account. This is about not using slang, or abbreviations, it is about using paragraphs and punctuation.

Anyone who conducts themselves on GMC in this way stands a good chance of being made a Senior member eventually

On the flip side, we are also looking for GMC Senior Members to exercise a little bit of additional responsibility in keeping GMC a great place to hang out. You will be the people that the other members look up to (in fact you already are, we are just formalising it!). We'll be asking GMC Senior members to be on the lookout for flame wars, bad language, copyright violations, and anything that doesn't fit with GMCs philosophy, and report it to the appropriate board moderator. Thankfully at GMC this sort of thing is extremely rare!

The first few Senior Members will be contacted in the coming days, and I'll announce their arrival on this thread.

This sounds like a great idea i think there are a number of great members here whos contributions have helped many people ( me included ) it will be great to see them getting recognition and identifyability, even though alot of us know who they are from seeing there great posts and there constant presence on the site

This sounds like a great idea i think there are a number of great members here whos contributions have helped many people ( me included ) it will be great to see them getting recognition and identifyability, even though alot of us know who they are from seeing there great posts and there constant presence on the site